Plural keyboard electronic musical instrument with balancer and reverberation arrangement

ABSTRACT

In an electronic musical instrument including two keyboard sections, signals from each section are supplied to a first balancer circuit which controls the proportion of signal intensities which appear at two lines each corresponding to each of the sections, then the signals of the two lines are on the one hand mixed directly and on the other hand fed to a second balancer circuit which mixing the two signals further controls the mixing proportion and in turn fed to a reverberation device, and the directly mixed signal and the output signal from the reverberation device are mixed and supplied to the following stage of the circuit.

United States, Patent [72] Inventor Shoichi Suzuki [56] References CitedHamamatsu-shi, J p UNITED STATES PATENTS [211 P 841350 2,942,070 6/1960Hammond et a1. 179/1001 [22] F1led July 14,1969

3,007,361 11/1961 Wayne 84/1.01 [45] Patented Feb.23,197l Assignee ppGakki Seizo Kabushiki Kaisha 3,110,771 11/1963 Logan et a1. 179/1Nakazawa cho Hamamaswshi Shizuolw 3,157,725 1 l/ 1964 Wayne 84/1.24Ken,Japan Primary Examiner-W. E. Ray

Attorney-Holman, Glascock, Downing & Seebold ABSTRACT: In an electronicmusical instrument including 54] PLURAL KEYBOARD ELECTRONIC MUSICAL twokeyboard sections, signals from each Section are Supplied INSTRUMENTWITH BALANCER AND REVERBERATlON ARRANGEMENT 10 Claims, 4 Drawing Figs.

[52] U.S. Cl 84/l.l7, 84/1.24 [51] Int. Cl. Gl0h 1/02 [50] Field ofSearch 84/ 1.

01, 1.17, 1.24, 1.27, (B,M,R,l()

KEYBOARD SECTlON to a first balancer circuit which controls theproportion of signal intensities which appear at two lines eachcorresponding to each of the sections, then the Signals of the two linesare on the one hand mixed directly and on the other hand fed to a secondbalancer circuit which mixing the two signals further controls themixing proportion and in turn fed to a reverberation device, and thedirectly mixed Signal and the output signal from the reverberationdevice are mixed and Supplied to the following stage of the circuit.

VOLUME BALANCER D IDEVI TION CE REVERBERATION BALANCER PATENT EUFEm l9?!3.1565996 SHEET 1 [IF 2 FIG.

REVERBERATION DEVICE KEYBOARD SECTION ,VOLUIVEBALANCER REVERBERATIONBALANCER FIG. 2

' REVERBERATION BALANCER KEYBOARD SECTION INVENTOR C f Suzuki ATTORNEY 5PATEN'TEUFEBZBIBYI 7 33555996 SHEETEUFZ FIG. 3

' 3 I iM|XER L2 l 1 l ,VOLUME BALANCER REVERBERATION DEVICE 9REVERBERATION BALANCER J REVERBERATION oswcs VOLUME BALANCER INVENTORflip/4:01 Suzuk ,M, pm?

ATTORNEYS PLIJRAL KEYBOARD ELECTRONIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENT WITH BALANCERAND REVERBERATION ARRANGEMENT BACKGROUND OF TI-IE'INVENTION The presentinvention relates to a balancer arrangement for electronic musicalinstruments. 1

The present invention relates to a balancer arrangement in an electronicmusical instrument having two keyboard sections and. a reverberationdevice.

An electronic musical instrument, generally, has two keyboard sections,e.g. a lower manual section and an upper manual section or a singlemanual which is divided into two sections of a left half and arighthalf, and in addition is provided with a reverberation device toobtain the effect of auditorium music. On such an instrument, a melodyis usually played by one of the two keyboard sections and anaccompaniment by the other keyboard section. The conventional instrumentis therefore provided with a volume balancers for controlling the mixingproportion (volume balance) of the signals from the one keyboardsection-and the other keyboard section to maintain proper balance ofmelody tones and accompaniment tones, but is not provided'with means forcontrolling the mutual proportion (reverberation balance) of thereverberation time of the signals from the one keyboard section and thatof the signals from the other.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention toprovide an improved balancer arrangement for an electronic musicalinstrument having two keyboard sections, in which a reverberation deviceis utilized to give reverberation effects to both I keyboard sectionsignals and the mutual proportion of the BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THEDRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an electronic musicalinstrument provided with the balancer arrangement of the presentinvention, and

FIGS. 2 to 4 are circuit diagrams showing, respectively, differentembodiments of a balancer arrangement according to the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION According to the present inventionan electronic musical instrument comprises, as shown in FIG. 1, twokeyboard sections 1 and 2 each including tone generators, keyingcircuits and tone filters, means 3 to control the volume balance of thesignals from said two keyboard sections respectively appearing at linesL, and L means 4 to mix the signals on L, and L an amplifier 5, anexpression control 6, a power amplifier 7 and a speaker 8 as a direct(nonrcverberatory) signal path and, in addition, means 9 to mixthesignals from the lines L, and L and simultaneously to control themixing proportion of said two signals, a reverberation device 10whichusually consists of a drive amplifier, a reverberation unit of coilsprings and a pickup amplifier to produce a reverberatory signal and avolume control 11 as a reverberatory path, the reverberatory signalbeing admixed to the direct signal. In the present invention, the mostcharacteristic feature is that the signals from the two keyboardsections 1 and 2 are respectively led to two separate lines L, and L,with the signal proportion being controlled by a volume balancer 3before mixing and these oncevolume-balance-controlled signals on L, andL are led to a further balancer, i.e. a reverberation balancer 9 wherethe two signals are mixed and the mixing proportion is furthercontrolled and then fed to the reverberation device 10. By themanipulation of the reverberation balancer it is selected which keyboardsection has how much longer reverberation time of the signal than theother, which means a reverberation balance. The reverberation time isdetermined by the ratio of the intensity of the reverberatory signal tothat of the nonreverberatory signal. By the manipulation of the volumebalancer it is selected which keyboard section has now much loudersignal, which means a volume balance. In this case, the volume balancercontrols the relative intensities of the signals on lines L, and L,which are respectively supplied to both nonreverberatory circuit (mixer4) and reverberation circuit (reverberation balancer 9) simultaneously,and therefore it does not influence the reverberation time of theresultant signal of each keyboard section. The volume balancer controlsonly the volume balance and the reverberation balancer controls only thereverberation balance.

Hereinafter the description is made according to preferred embodimentsof this invention. Needless to say, the instrument includes othernecessary devices such as a vibrato effect producing device or othersections such as a pedal section as in the conventional instrument.Referring to FIG. 2, the instrument comprises lower and upper keyboardsections 1 and 2, a volume balancer 3 consisting of resistors 21 and 23which are respectively connected between the output sides of thekeyboard sections and the lines L, and L and of resistors 20 (variable),22 and 24 which are connected between lines L, and l..,, a reverberationbalancer 9 consisting of a variable resistor connected also between thelines L, and L,, a reverberation device 10 the input side of which isconnected to a movable contact of the variable resistor 90, a mixer 4consisting of resistors 14 and 15 which are connected in series to eachother between the lines L, and L an amplifier 5 the input side of whichis connected to connection point between resistors 14 and 15, a variableresistor 11 connected between the output side of the reverberationdevice 10 and a ground, and resistors 12 and 13 connected between theoutput side of the amplifier 5 and a movable contact of the variableresistor 11. The connection point between the resistors 12 and 13 isconnected to a next stage, e.g. an expression control 6 as show in FIG.1.

In the instrument of FIG. 2, the variable resistor 20 operates to adjustvolume balance, thereby to adjust relative quantities of the tonesignals produced, respectively, by the lower and upper keyboardsections. That is, the intensity of the tone signal from the lowerkeyboard section 1 appearing at the line L, becomes progressivelygreater depending upon adjustment of the movable contact of the variableresistor 20 towards the direction of the arrow A. On the other hand, atthis time the intensity of the tone signal from the upper keyboardsection 2 appearing at the line L, becomes smaller. Furthermore, whenthe movable contact of the variable resistor 20 is adjusted toward thedirection of the arrow B, the intensity relation becomes the reverse ofthat described above, with the tone signal produced by the lowerkeyboard section and led to the line L, becoming smaller and the tonesignal produced by the upper keyboard section and led to the line Lbecoming larger. Accordingly, irrespective of the fact that the producedtone is a reverberatory tone or a nonreverberatory tone it is possibleto determine the volume proportion of the lower and upper keyboard tonesby adjusting the movable contact of the variable resistor 20. In thiscase the nonrever'beratory tones are introduced, in the state mixedthrough the resistors 14 and 15,

into the succeeding stage, so that the mixing proportion between thelower keyboard tone and .the upper keyboard tone which arenonreverberatory tones can be determined by adjusting the variableresistor 20.

Furthermore, since the variable resistor 90 operates as a reverberationbalancer, the more the movable contact of the resistor 9a is adjustedtoward the direction of the arrow C, the more the tone signal which hasappeared on the line L, and introduced into the reverberation device 10through the resistor 9a increases, and the tone signal which hasappeared on the line L, and introduced into said device decreases. AC-cordingly, a substantial part of the lower keyboard tone becomesa;reverberatory tone and a substantial part of the upper keyboard tonebecomes a nonreverberatory tone because of the fact that a substantialpart of the keyboard signal produced by the upper keyboard section andpassing through the line L, is introduced into the amplifier 5 throughthe resistor 15. If the movable contact of the variable resistor 9a isadjusted toward the directionof the arrow D, the operation becomes thereverse, whereby a substantial P rt of the lower keyboard tone becomes anonreverberatory tone and that of the upper keyboard tone. becomes areverberatory tone.

Now, for example, when the movable contact of the variable resistor 90isset at a desiredposition, and the movable contact of the variableresistor is adjusted toward the direction of the arrows A or B, the tonesignal appearing on the line L, is increased or decreased and thatappearing on the line L, is decreased or increased in response to thisIn this case, in connection with each of the tone'signals appearing onthe lines L, and L quantities of the? signals divided into the amplifier5 and reverberation device l0 are previously determined by values of theresistors 14,15 and position of the movable contact of the variableresistor 90,, so that the ratio of the reverberatory tone to thenonreverberatory tone.(this determines the reverberation time length)produced by the lower keyboard and the ratio of those produced by theupper keyboard are maintained, respectively, 'at certain constantvalues. I

Furthermore if, in reverse, the movable contact of the variable resistor20 is set at a certain desired position and the volume ration betweenthe tones produced respectively by the lower and upper keyboard sectionsis set at a specific value, it

' will be possible to increase and decrease the quantity of thereverberatory tone produced by the lower keyboard section I and todecrease and increase the quantity. of the reverberatory tone producedby the upper keyboard, section, depending upon the position to which themovable contact of the variable resistor 9a is moved, whereby thereverberatory effect due to either keyboard section can be emphasized.

The embodiment of the invention shown in FIG. 3 differs from that shownin FIG. 2 in that volume-balance adjustment is carried out by means oftwo variable resistors 30 and 31. Referring to FIG. 3, the movablecontacts of the variable resistors 30 and 31 are constructed so thatthey are jointly concurrently adjusted toward the directionof'a'rrow Aor B and are respectively connected to the lines L i and L, therebyvarying the resistance between one line {and its electrical groundreturn inversely relative to the resista'ncebetween the other line andits respective electrical return. In this example also, as in the caseof the example of FIG/2,.thej more the movable contacts of the resistors30 and 31 are adjusted toward the direction of the arrow A, the morethetone signal appearing on the line L, increases, and that appearing onthe line L, decreases. If this adjustment is carried out in reverse, theoperation is reversed. The otherfunctions are the same as those of theexample of FIG. 2.

The other embodiment of the invention shown in FIG. 4 differs from thatof FIG. 2 in only the. organimtion of the volume balancer. That is,variable resistors 40 and 41 are provided and their movable contacts arerespectively connected to the output sides of the lower and upperkeyboard sections. One of the two terminals of each of the variableresistors 40 and 41 is opened and, between the other terminals of theseresistors, resistors 42 and '43 are connected in series. The junctionbetween the resistors 42 and 43 is grounded; theconnection point of theresistors 40 and 42 is connected to the line L,; the connection point ofthe resistors 41 and 43 to the line L,; and a reverberation balancer 9is connected between the lines L, and L The other circuit composition ofthe example of FIG. 4 is the same as that of FIG. 2. In the example ofFIG. 4, also, the movable contacts of the resistors 40 and 41 arejointly concurrently adjusted, as in the case of the example of FIG. 3,to inthe direction of arrow A, the tone signal appearing on the line L,increases and that appearing on the line L, decreases. Of course, whenadjustment of the movable contacts of the resistors 40 and 41 is carriedout in reverse, the operation becomes reverse.

According to the present invention, as will be understood from theforegoing description in connection with the embodiments thereof asillustrated in FIGS. 2, 3, and 4, it is possible to carry out,individually and irrespective of other adjustments, relative adjustmentof volumes of the tone signals produced by the lower and upper keyboardsections and adjustment of relative reverberation time lengths betweenthe lower keyboard tones and the upper keyboard tones, and to maintainthe ratio of the reverberatory tone to the nonreverberatory tone of eachof the lower and upper keyboard tones at an almost constant value in thecourse of the volume adjustment, so that the volume can be freelyadjusted in a state wherein a desirable reverberatory effect isretained.

lclaim: y

1. In an electronic musical instrument'having at least two keyboardsections; a balancer arrangement comprising in combination, means forrespectively leading signals from said keyboard sections tocorresponding two lines and controlling relative intensities of saidsignals on said two lines, means for mixing said signals to obtain afirst-mixed signal, means for mixing the signals from said two lines andcontrolling a mixing proportion thereof to obtain a second mixed signal,a reverberation device which receives said second mixed signal andproduces a reverberatory signal, and means for translating said firstmixed signal and said reverberatory signal into sounds.

2. In an electronic musical instrument as set forth in claim 1, abalancer wherein said means for mixing and controlling the mixingproportion of the signals from said two lines in a second mixed signalcomprises a reverberation balancing resistance connected between saidtwo-lines with means for variably connecting said reverberation deviceto said reverberation balancing resistance for varying the resistancebetween each respective line and said variable connection inverselyrelative to the proportion of the signal from the respec tive line insaid second mixed signals.

3. In an electronic musical instrument as set forth in claim I, abalancer wherein said means for controlling relative signal intensitieson said two lines comprises an interconnection therebetween including avariable resistance means connected between said two lines and inversely{variably connected g variably connecting said reverberation device tosaid reverberation balancing resistance for? varying the resistancebetween each respective line and said variable connection in verselyrelative to the proportion of the signal from the respective line insaid second mixed signal. I

5. In an electronic musical instrument as set forth in claim 1, variableresistance means connecting the output of said re verberation device tothe input of said translating means.

6. In an electronic musical instrument as set forth in claim 1, abalancer wherein said means for controlling relative signal intensitieson said two lines comprises an interconnection between said meansleading signals from said keyboard sec tions including a separateresistance connected between each keyboard section output and theelectrical return therefor with each line connected to its respectiveresistance by a reresistance between one line and its electrical returninversely relative to the resistance between the other line and itsrespective electrical return. g

7. In an electronic musical instrument as set forth in claim 6, abalancer wherein said means formixing and controlling the mixingproportion of the signals from said two lines in a second mixed signalcomprises a reverberation balancing resistance connected between saidtwo lines with means for variably connecting said reverberation deviceto said reverberation balancing resistance for varying the resistancebetween each respective line and said variable connection inverselyrelative to the proportion of the signal from the respective line insaid second mixed signal;

8. In an electronic musical instrument as set forth in claim 1,

a balancer wherein said means for controlling relative signalintensifies on said two lines comprises a separate variable resistancein said means leading signals from each respective keyboard section andbeing constructed concurrently inversely variable. v

9. in an electronic musical instrument as set forth in claim 8, whereinsaid signal intensity control means. includes a separate resistanceconnected between the output of each of said variable resistances andthe electrical return for the respective line.

10. In an electronic musical instrument as set forth in claim 9,variable resistance means connecting the output of said reverberationdevice to the input of said translating means.

1. In an electronic musical instrument having at least two keyboardsections; a balancer arrangement comprising in combination, means forrespectively leading signals from said keyboard sections tocorresponding two lines and controlling relative intensities of saidsignals on said two lines, means for mixing said signals to obtain afirst mixed signal, means for mixing the signals from said two lines andcontrolling a mixing proportion thereof to obtain a second mixed signal,a reverberation device which receives said second mixed signal andproduces a reverberatory signal, and means for translating said firstmixed signal and said reverberatory signal into sounds.
 2. In anelectronic musical instrument as set forth in claim 1, a balancerwherein said means for mixing and controlling the mixing proportion ofthe signals from said two lines in a second mixed signal comprises areverberation balancing resistance connected between said two lines withmeans for variably connecting said reverberation device to saidreverberation balancing resisTance for varying the resistance betweeneach respective line and said variable connection inversely relative tothe proportion of the signal from the respective line in said secondmixed signals.
 3. In an electronic musical instrument as set forth inclaim 1, a balancer wherein said means for controlling relative signalintensities on said two lines comprises an interconnection therebetweenincluding a variable resistance means connected between said two linesand inversely variably connected between both of said lines and theelectrical return therefor with a minimum fixed resistance between eachrespective line and its electrical return.
 4. In an electronic musicalinstrument as set forth in claim 3, a balancer wherein said means formixing and controlling the mixing proportion of the signals from saidtwo lines in a second mixed signal comprises a reverberation balancingresistance connected between said two lines with means for variablyconnecting said reverberation device to said reverberation balancingresistance for varying the resistance between each respective line andsaid variable connection inversely relative to the proportion of thesignal from the respective line in said second mixed signal.
 5. In anelectronic musical instrument as set forth in claim 1, variableresistance means connecting the output of said reverberation device tothe input of said translating means.
 6. In an electronic musicalinstrument as set forth in claim 1, a balancer wherein said means forcontrolling relative signal intensities on said two lines comprises aninterconnection between said means leading signals from said keyboardsections including a separate resistance connected between each keyboardsection output and the electrical return therefor with each lineconnected to its respective resistance by a resistance variableconnector, said resistance variable connectors being constructedconcurrently adjustable for varying the resistance between one line andits electrical return inversely relative to the resistance between theother line and its respective electrical return.
 7. In an electronicmusical instrument as set forth in claim 6, a balancer wherein saidmeans for mixing and controlling the mixing proportion of the signalsfrom said two lines in a second mixed signal comprises a reverberationbalancing resistance connected between said two lines with means forvariably connecting said reverberation device to said reverberationbalancing resistance for varying the resistance between each respectiveline and said variable connection inversely relative to the proportionof the signal from the respective line in said second mixed signal. 8.In an electronic musical instrument as set forth in claim 1, a balancerwherein said means for controlling relative signal intensities on saidtwo lines comprises a separate variable resistance in said means leadingsignals from each respective keyboard section and being constructedconcurrently inversely variable.
 9. In an electronic musical instrumentas set forth in claim 8, wherein said signal intensity control meansincludes a separate resistance connected between the output of each ofsaid variable resistances and the electrical return for the respectiveline.
 10. In an electronic musical instrument as set forth in claim 9,variable resistance means connecting the output of said reverberationdevice to the input of said translating means.